Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Equatorial Guinea: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Equatorial Guinea, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Equatorial Guinea in the interactive map
History of Islam in Equatorial Guinea
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea has an area of 28,051 sq km, including five inhabited islands off its coast: Bioko (2,017 sq km) where the capital Malabo is located, Annobón (18 sq km), Corisco (14 sq km), Great Elobey (2.3 sq km) and Small Elobey (0.2 sq km). A map of this country is presented in Figure 3.4.6. It was occupied by Spain in 1844 and gained its independence in 1968. Islam entered here at the turn of the twentieth century and the number of Muslims was estimated at 1,000 or 0.3% in 1985. However, by 2011, DHS puts the percentage of Muslims at 3.69%. Many of the Muslims are coming from nearby Cameroon and Nigeria.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will increase by half of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to reach 0.2 million by 2050 and 0.3 million by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Equatorial Guinea
The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.
| Year | Total population (thousands) | Muslim population (thousands) | Muslim share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 137.0 | 0.438 | 0.32% |
| 2000 | 668.0 | 13.36 | 2.00% |
| 2100 | 3,853 | 308.2 | 8.00% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.